There are two things a good meat stock provides, one is flavor, and the other is _gelatin_. Vegetable provides the first but not the second, and store bought meat stock has the first, but not the second. A really good homemade meat stock will gel _solid_ if you refrigerate it. I've never found a brand of store bought meat stock that has an appreciable amount of gelatin.
One way to level up your pan sauces at home is to dissolve a packet of clear unflavored gelatin per cup of stock before using it -- give it about 10 minutes to bloom first and then stir it. It'll make it much thicker and richer as it reduces -- and this works for basically any recipe that needs stock.
As someone who has been a vegetarian for over 25 years I’ve never heard of this. Why would you want your stock to have a thickener? Isn’t it easier to just add a thickener to the food you make so you can control how thick or thin the result is?
You don't add it when you're making or storing the stock. You add it when you're making your sauce. In lots of cases, you're not saucing until the main dish is done and plated.
I am not sure I would use gelatin in a vegetable stock. Things I've used: arrowroot powder, cornstarch, flour, potato starch, agar. A classic veggie gravy would be veggie stock + flour/butter + maybe some tomato paste.
Sorry if I was vague. My question was why you would want your meat stock to have a thickener. I mean I don’t premix all my cornstarch with spices and salt since I want to be able to pick the right amount of aromas and taste separately from how thick I make my soup.
It's more of a mouthfeel thing than a thickener. Gelatin, in the amounts found in a good stock, will still be quite liquid when the stock is at serving temperature, but will sort of coat your mouth with flavor even when the broth hasn't been thickened with a roux or cornstarch.
They were pointing out that with meat stocks it depends what went into the pot - a good home made (or restaurant) one typically already has enough to make it “gel” in the fridge. The box types you mostly get in a store didn’t have this, so might want to add if your recipe assumes it.
Discovered by accident that really low end pork from the supermarket, which I throw in the slow cooker for various uses, yields a great nearly solid stock. I was going to just use the lard swimming on the top but when I tasted the stuff that solidifies underneath it was delicious.
Can find it here, think it's a brand that mostly sell to restaurants. It's like a package of jelly when it comes out of the fridge, have to spoon it out.
Otherwise I use gelatin in pan sauces if I'm not using flour or other thickeners. Also easier to hit the right consistency as I can just add more unlike with flour that should be cooked in fat first.
One way to level up your pan sauces at home is to dissolve a packet of clear unflavored gelatin per cup of stock before using it -- give it about 10 minutes to bloom first and then stir it. It'll make it much thicker and richer as it reduces -- and this works for basically any recipe that needs stock.